The experience of care workers for abused women in the area of Durban.

Abstract

A perusal of various studies that had been conducted among the victims of abuse and those who took care of them revealed that the researchers tended to focus on the victims rather than on the people who took care of these abused women. These studies unintentionally did not bear in mind that people working with victims of abuse may experience a number of challenges when working with such women. Such experiences may have an influence on their ability to provide appropriate services. Therefore, the aim of this research project was to establish which experiences that were encountered by care workers involved with abused women impacted the services they were able to render. This was achieved by initially consulting various literatures by different authors with regards to the experiences encountered by care workers involved with abused women. This was done by assessing at how being Factors that were investigated were the training experiences and knowledge base of care workers and to establish what influences these factors had on the caring process. The study employed a qualitative design and interviews were conducted with volunteer care taker respondents in order to obtain rich data that would inform the questions of this research study. The study was guided by Kurt Lewin’s Field Theory: Individual Psychology and career.According to Adair and Mowsesian (1999: 335), the totality of coexisting facts [i.e., those guiding human behaviour] are conceived as mutually interdependent in influencing an individual’s career. This theory gives emphasis to the significance of several life roles and their interactions with a person’s career (Adair &Mowsesian, 1999), and for this reason it was selected as an appropriate theory to give impetus to the current study. The results obtained from the interviews with the care workers involved with abused women emphasized the importance of training in care work. The care worker participants touched on issues such as the language barrier, cultural differences, and different social statuses as their concerns when providing services to the victims of abuse. Not being able to communicate because of a language barrier, not knowing how different cultures dealt with women abuse, and having to deal with women who derived from different social contexts proved to be barriers in their efforts to render effective services. It is argued that this study add value to care departments as it has revealed the powerful challenge that their employees experience. This knowledge supports policy and decision makers in coming up with solutions to address the negative experiences encountered by their employees. This study also adds value to those who are interested in taking the same career path or who wish to work with abused women in the future in the sense that they may be prepared to face the challenges that they will encounter. This study also educates society at large about the dreadful phenomenon of women abuse and the reasons for and effects of its occurrence as seen through the eyes of care workers. In conclusion, the limitations of a qualitative approach as they affected this study are discussed, and recommendation for practice, policy and further research are offered.